The present invention relates to a bound-off fabric with its final loops bound off to prevent loosening of the loops by using a flat knitting machine comprising at least a pair of front and back needle beds disposed opposite to each other in front and back and having a number of knitting needles, and to the binding-off process.
In a method using a flat knitting machine wherein a knitted part of a desired structure/pattern (which is hereinafter called xe2x80x9cthe ground partxe2x80x9d) is formed following a so-called set-up course knitted at a starting end of a knitted fabric and, then, final loops at a finishing end of the knitted fabric are bound off by a so-called binding-off process to prevent loosening of the loops of the knitted fabric, the knitted fabric can be formed on the flat knitting machine without any need for the process of preventing loosening of the loops after knitting. The set-up knitting comprises a set-up course knitting for knitting a set-up course by feeding yarn alternately to the needles of front and back needle beds and a loosened loop prevention knitting for preventing loosening of the loops by feeding the yarn continuously to the loops retained on the needles on the front and back needle beds following the set-up course knitting. By using the set-up course knitting noted above for knitting an end portion of the knitted fabric on the set-up side, the step-up part is kept without loosening. At an finishing end of the knitted fabric, a binding-off loop of a row of binding-off loops is formed following a final loop of a final course of the ground part of the fabric. Then, a newly formed loop is overlapped with a final loop in an adjacent wale, to form a double loop. Thereafter, a loop of the next course is formed following the double loop. The knitting mentioned above is repeated to form a row of binding-off loops which are continuously arrayed from one end of the knitted fabric to the other end, which is called xe2x80x9cthe binding-off processxe2x80x9d. The binding-off process enables a finishing end portion of the knitted fabric to be kept from loosening.
The binding-off loop of the row of binding-off loops formed in the process of the binding-off process is overlapped with the final loop of an adjacent wale and is held in a direction in which it is intersected with the loop of the ground part. In the knitted fabric bound off by this conventional binding-off process, the loops of the row of the binding-off loops different in orientation come out on the bound off part of the fabric. Thus, for example when a belt-shaped knitted fabric with its set-up part and the bound off part formed close to each other is knitted, the difference in knitting structure between the set-up part and the bound off part is easily recognized and thus the difference in appearance between the set-up part and the bound off part is apparently outstanding.
To reduce or minimize the problems mentioned above, the present invention provides a knitted fabric bound off by forming rows of binding-off loops in such a manner that a binding-off loop of a row of binding-off loops formed following a final loop of a rib knitted fabric with a predetermined number of front loops and back loops arranged alternately is overlapped with an adjacent final loop to form a double loop and a binding-off loop of a row of binding-off loops formed following the double loop continue from one end of a binding-off region to the other end thereof, wherein the loop of the row of binding-off loops is formed with finer yarn than yarn used in the rib knitted fabric part, and wherein the binding-off loop of the row of binding-off loops formed following the final loop of an odd wale of the knitted fabric at an end thereof and the binding-off loop of the row of binding-off loops formed following the final loop of an even wale of the knitted fabric are overlapped with the adjacent final loops on the underside thereof and also the binding-off loop formed following the final loop of the odd wale and the binding-off loop formed following the final loop of the even wale are intersected with each other.
It is preferable that the binding-off loop is formed with yarn of finer yarn count than the yarn used for knitting the rib knitted part or with yarn smaller in number of yarn ends than the yarn used for knitting the rib knitted part.
The binding-off loop may be formed with elastic or stretch yarn.
Also, the present invention provides a binding-off process of a rib knitted fabric at an end thereof using a flat knitting machine comprising at least a pair of first and second needle beds which are displaced opposite to each other in front and back and have each a large number of needles, between which a needle bed gap is formed, and at least either of which is racked laterally, and at least one yarn feeder for feeding yarn to the needles of the needle beds, the binding-off process comprising the steps:
(1) of dividing loops of a final course of the knitted fabric into a first loop group retained on needles of the first needle bed and a second loop group retained on needles of the second needle bed; and
(2) of repeating at least the following steps a, b, c starting at one lateral end of the knitted fabric:
a) of feeding finer yarn than yarn used for the rib knitted part to a needle on the first needle bed retaining a final loop of the first loop group and to a needle on the second needle bed retaining a final loop of the second loop group, to form next new loops on those needles;
b) of transferring a binding-off loop formed following a loop of the first loop group and a binding-off loop formed following a loop of the second loop group between the first and second needle beds in such a manner as to be bound with each other, so that they are intersected with each other; and
c) of overlapping a binding-off loop formed following the loop of the first loop group with an adjacent loop of the first loop group and overlapping a binding-off loop formed following the loop of the second loop group with an adjacent loop of the second loop group.
According to the construction of the present invention mentioned above, the binding-off process is performed using finer yarn than yarn used for knitting the rib knitted part, such as yarn of fine yarn count or yarn of a reduced number of yarn ends, or an elastic or stretch yarn. The binding-off loop formed following the final loop of the first loop group and the binding-off loop formed following he final loop of the second loop group are interested with each other, to bind off the knitted fabric. The binding-off loops of the first row of binding-off loops formed following the final loop are overlapped with adjacent loops of the first loop group and the binding-off loops of the second row of binding-off loops formed following the final loop are overlapped with adjacent loops of the second loop group in such a manner that they are located on the underside of the final loops of the knitted fabric when the knitting of the knitted fabric is completed. Thus, those binding-off loops are hidden under the final loops of the knitted fabric. The binding-off loops formed following the final loops in an odd wale of the knitted fabric and the binding-off loops formed following the final loops in an even wale of the knitted fabric are transferred between the front and back needle beds so that the binding-off loops are intersected with each other. This can prevent the binding-off loops from coming out on the front side of the bound off part, thus enabling the bound off part to be formed in a similar appearance to the set-up part.
Also, the present invention provides a binding-off process of a rib knitted fabric at an end thereof using a flat knitting machine comprising at least a pair of first and second needle beds which are displaced opposite to each other in front and back and have each a large number of needles, between which a needle bed gap is formed, and at least either of which is racked laterally, and at least one yarn feeder for feeding yarn to the needles of the needle beds, the binding-off process comprising the steps:
(1) of dividing loops of a final course of the rib knitted fabric into a first loop group retained on needles of the first needle bed and a second loop group retained on needles of the second needle bed;
(2) of forming at least two rows of binding-off loops by using finer yarn than yarn used for the rib knitted part, with at least a final loop of the first loop group in a wale of the knitted fabric at a lateral end thereof and a final loop of the second loop group in the wale of the knitted fabric at the lateral end thereof as origins; and
(3) of overlapping the binding-off loops, which are formed in such a manner that while the rows of binding-off loops are formed, the rows of the binding-off loops are extended in zigzag from the first loop group to the second loop group and vise versa and intersected with each other, with the opposite final loops of the knitted fabric.
According to the construction of the present invention mentioned above, the binding-off process is performed using finer yarn than yarn used for knitting the rib knitted part following the final loop of the rib knitted fabric, such as yarn of fine yarn count or yarn of a reduced number of yarn ends, or an elastic or stretch yarn. At least two rows of binding-off loops are formed, with the loops of the first and second wales at the lateral sides as the origins. The rows of the binding-off loops are extended in zigzag from the first loop group to the second loop group and vise versa. Also, the binding-off loops are intersected with each other and also overlapped with the final loops of the knitted fabric so that when the knitting of the knitted fabric is completed, the binding-off loops can be hidden under the final loops of the knitted fabric.
The knitted fabric may be a tubular fabric with its first knitted fabric and second knitted fabric knitted to be continuously joined at both ends thereof and it is preferable that while the first knitted fabric is bound off, the final loop of the second knitted fabric is held on either of the first and second needle beds so that the first knitted fabric can be knitted, and after completion of the binding-off process of the first knitted fabric, the second knitted fabric is bound off.